‘"With a better start, we wouldn’t have had to put the run together that we did," Ruff said in HSBC Arena. "The start of the season I find as a coach is a very important time. It sets you up for the rest of the year."’

‘There have been 162 coaching changes in the NHL since Ruff took over 14 years ago. He is the third-longest tenured coach in the four major professional sports leagues, behind only Tony LaRussa (St. Louis Cardinals) and Gregg Popovich (San Antonio Spurs).’

‘As far as if there are any untouchables on the Sabres roster Regier said, “The odds are that there are players that we don’t want to trade, that we’re not going to trade, then in the back of your mind you think, well Wayne Gretzky was traded. I think there’s a high unlikelihood that certain guys will not be in play.”‘

‘The 2010-11 season was Ruff’s 14th year as head coach since being hired on July 21, 1997, making him the NHL’s longest tenured head coach. During Ruff’s time in Buffalo, there have been 162 coaching changes throughout the NHL.’

‘“Before I bought the team, I had a perception in my mind that Lindy was a good coach,” Pegula said while explaining his decision to extend Ruff. “After doing our due diligence and talking to a lot of people who had nothing to gain by saying ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ about Lindy’s abilities, I didn’t hear any negative comments about his abilities. As a matter of fact, I did receive some ‘if you think you’re going to get rid of him, can you talk to us first?’ That’s the kind of respect he has around the league.”’

‘”With Terry coming, I think he set a mind-set that a lot of guys really, really like and care for. I know I do,” leading scorer Thomas Vanek said. “Not that [previous owner] Tom [Golisano] was bad. I enjoyed having Tom. I think he was good for us. But Terry just brings another element, just the way he talks to guys. He cares. You can tell he cares so much, and that’s what hurts even more is you let him down, too.”‘

‘The team has yet to confirm whether the injury was another in a long line of concussions or if it was a shoulder/collarbone problem, but coach Lindy Ruff said after the series that Connolly would have been out for about six weeks.’

‘The bottom line now is that he needs to prove he’s up to the job. We’re going to learn plenty about his management skills now that the word “no” has been removed from the Sabres’ vocabulary. We’re going to see whether his negotiating skills can be effective without him needing the hard-line approach common during his tenure.’

‘”It was the worst feeling in the world,” Kaleta, the Angola native, said Thursday in HSBC Arena. “I’ve had to battle injuries this year and there’s no worse feeling than sitting at home and having to watch your teammates go out and battle, especially in a Game Seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and you can’t go out and help.”‘

‘“You take a little bit of both. The way we played the last three, four months, I think there are a lot of positives, and then the way we didn’t get it done in the playoffs, there’s something to learn from,” Vanek said. “That’s myself included. I was going pretty good for most of the year, and then I didn’t get the job done in the playoffs. That personally hurts and something I don’t want to happen again.”’